Lyman, Eliza Marie Partridge Smith, 1820-1885

Autobiography (1820-1885)

LIFE AND JOURNAL OF

ELIZA MARIE PARTRIDGE (SMITH) LYMAN

I was born in Painesville, Geauga County, Ohio. My
parents' names were Edward and Lydia Clisbee Partridge. At a
very early age I was sent to school where I acquired a very good
common education. At the age of eight years my parents went on
a visit to their friends' in Massachusetts taking me and my
sister Caroline (then a babe), with them. The other children,
my sisters Harriet and Emily, were left in [the] charge of my
Aunt Phebe Lee. We went to my grandfather Partridge's in
Pittsfield, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, where they left me
while they went to visit my mother's friends in the eastern part
of the state. They returned in a short time bringing my
mother's sister Elsey with them.

Although I was very young yet, I remember many things that
I saw on this journey. My grandfather's nice brick house, and
the cider mill, the orchard and the farm are all plain in my
memory; also the cities that we passed through and the Erie
Canal with its locks and the roaring of the Niagara Falls in the
distance, the crossing of the lake, my sickness while crossing
and many other things are still fresh in my mind. I do not
remember anything more worthy of note except that I was sent to
school until I was about 13 years of age or a short time before
this when the Book of Mormon was shown to my father. He did
not accept it at first as being what it was represented to be,
but after making a journey to New York where the Prophet Joseph
Smith lived, and making inquiry of those in the Church and also
of those out, he became convinced that the Lord had commenced to
set up his kingdom on the earth and embraced the opportunity of
becoming a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints and was ordained to the office of a bishop, there having
been none ordained in this dispensation until that time.

He then returned to his home in Ohio and after a time was
called to leave his business which was in a most flourishing
condition and go to Missouri to attend to the business of the
Church. He went and left his family to get along as best they
could. I was at that time very sick and he had no expectation
of seeing me again, but the Lord had called and he must obey.
He showed his faith by his works and the Lord spared my life and
the lives of the rest of his family for many years. He never
went back to sell his place or settle his affairs, but left it
for others to do which was done at a great sacrifice. He had
accumulated a handsome property which went for a very little as
he could not be there to attend to it.

His family was moved up to Missouri in company with others
who were journeying to that land, which was quite a task on my
mother as her children were small. I being the eldest, we
children were five in number and the weather was so cold that we
were obliged to leave the Missouri River at a place called
Arrowrock about one hundred miles from Independence and wait for
my father to come with wagons to meet us. We procured a small
dark room from a family of Negroes, our only light being what
came down the chimney, and no way to get in or out of the room
except to go through the room occupied by the Negroes. We
occupied this doleful place about a week when my father came out
and took us away.

The weather was extremely cold, so much so that we had to
lay by one day or be in danger of being frozen. We however
arrived at Independence in safety and occupied a small brick
house which my father had rented for the winter as he had not
yet had time to build. We lived very poor that winter as the
people of that country did not want much but cornbread and bacon
and raised but very little of anything else. Consequently,
there was but very little to be bought. But I remember we had a
barrel of honey and what vegetables we could get, but no wheat
bread as wheat was not to be bought in the land.

The next spring we moved into a house that my father rented
from Lilburn W. Boggs where we lived until my father built a
house on his own land; here we lived while we stayed in that
county. In July, 1833, a number of armed men came to our house
in the afternoon and took my father to the public square where
they administered to him a coat of tar and feathers and raised a
whip with the intention of whipping him, but a friend to
humanity interfered and prevented it. I well remember how my
father looked; we (the children) were very much frightened. My
mother was very weak having a babe (a boy named for his father),
but three weeks old. The brethren were very kind and assisted
my father to rid himself of the tar, but the clothes he had on
were spoiled.

The people of that place had been acting the part of a mob
towards our people for some time and still continued the same
course until our people agreed to leave the county which they
did in the following November. It was very cold and
uncomfortable moving at that time of the year and a great
amount, if not all, of our provisions that we had laid up for
the winter were lost and our houses left with many of our things
in them. Our land and orchards and improvements of every kind
left to benefit those who had driven us away. We traveled three
miles and encamped on the bank of the Missouri River under a
high bluff. The rain during the night poured down in torrents
which wet ourselves and our things badly. This was the first
night that I ever slept out of doors.

The next day we crossed the river into Clay County. There
my father laid up some house logs and stretched a tent on them
so that we could stay here until he could go and find a house.
The weather was very cold but we were in the woods and could
have plenty of fire. It was here that I saw the stars fall.
They came down almost as thick as snowflakes and could be seen
until the daylight hid them from sight. Some of our enemies
thought the day of judgment had come and were very much
frightened but the Saints rejoiced and considered it as one of
the signs of the latter days.

When my father had done what he could to help the brethren
across the river he, with others, went out to see if they could
find some houses to move into, as there was already snow on the
ground. He found a miserable old house that he could have with
one fireplace in it which he and a brother by the name of John
Corrill moved their families into. I think my mother as also
Sister Corrill must have had their patience tried very much
during this winter, the house open and cold and their cooking
and children and husbands and selves all around one fireplace,
for stoves were not in use then.

I did what work I could get for almost any kind of pay, but
there were so many wanting work that there was very little
chance to get any. We lived in this old house while we stayed
in Clay County which was about two years. While here my father
went on a mission to the eastern states. After his return he
with others went to look for a location for the Saints, as the
people with whom we resided began to be somewhat uneasy about
us. My father and those who were with him decided that a good
place could be had in Caldwell County. They (our people) bought
land there and removed their families there, thinking to live by
themselves in peace, which we had for a while.

While here, I went about thirty miles from home and taught
school for three months, not hearing a word from home while I
was away and I did not see a person while there that I had ever
seen before, but the Lord watched over me and returned me in
safety to my parents again. I would never advise anyone to let
a girl go away as I did then with entire strangers, to dwell
with strangers. It was no uncommon thing in those times for our
Mormon girls to go out among the Missourians and teach their
children for a small remuneration. I received but 13 dollars
and my board for the three months that I was gone. I think the
people were not as wicked then as they are now or it would not
have been safe for us to go about as we did. I was at this time
about 17 years old.

We remained in Caldwell two or three years when not only
the mobs that were around us but the authorities of the state
said we must leave that county, which we did. We settled in
Illinois, first at Quincy, then at Pittsfield, Pike County, then
at Nauvoo, which was the gathering place for the Saints. In
consequence of the persecutions of apostates, my father was
obliged to leave Far West before his family and arranged with
Brother King Follett to bring them to Quincy. We had a very
uncomfortable time as the weather was cold and we were badly
crowded in the wagon, although we did as we had done every time
that we moved, left most of our things. We crossed the
Mississippi partly in a boat and partly on the ice. Father met
us and took us to a house where we were more comfortable than we
had been while traveling. We stayed here but a short time as my
father thought he could do better somewhere else and the Church
was scattered with no place of gathering. However, it was not
long before we went to Nauvoo as the Prophet, who was yet in
prison, had said he thought it was the place to gather to.

The Saints were nearly all sick with ague and fever and our
family had to have a share. My two sisters, Harriet and Emily,
had the ague about a year. I did not have it as I had worn it
out when we lived in Ohio. As we were by this time much reduced
in circumstances (having moved so many times and my father
having poor health), it was thought best for me to take a school
at Lima, a small town about 24 miles away, which I did and my
father rented rooms for his family in a large storehouse where
several other families resided, one Brother Hyrum Smith, and his
brother-in-law, R. B. Thompson, and two more families, as they
had not time to build yet.

While I was teaching at Lima, I boarded with a gentile
family and was well treated, but suffered fearfully with
headache. About two weeks before my school was out, my father
sent a man for me saying my sister Harriet was dying. We rode
all night and arrived at home about sunrise. My sister was
still alive but died during the day. My parents took this
trouble to heart very much and my father said she was his pet
child, but no one knew it until then and I do not think now that
he knew any difference in his children, but I believe when a
child or friend is taken from us, we are to think we loved them
more than others.

This was in the spring and my father was making a garden on
his lot which was distant about a mile. As his health was very
poor and he did not feel able to walk so far to his work (he was
also building a house), he concluded after the funeral of my
sister that he would move down home and occupy a log house that
he had put up for a stable but had not been used, and then he
could work at his house and garden with more ease. He commenced
to move but had to give up and take to his bed before he had the
last load moved. He was sick about ten days when he also left
us most uncomfortably situated. I was too sick to attend the
funeral. He was completely worn out with the hardships and
fatigues of movings and exposure caused by our enemies who never
slackened their hands but persecuted us continually. He was
firm and steadfast in his religion and tried to the very best of
his ability to attend to every known duty as bishop in the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We were in very
poor circumstances at the time of his death, the handsome
property that he had when he joined the Church having been spent
in the Church and he not having had the privilege of staying in
one place long enough to amass more.

After his funeral, Brother William Law took us to his house
to stay until our house was finished. He and his wife were very
kind to us and doctored me and also my sister Lydia who was very
sick, so that in about three weeks we were able to move to our
own house which was finished.

I forgot to mention that while I lived in Far West, I had
learned the tailor's trade as far as sewing went, which I found
of great use to me as I now could get work at the tailor's shops
and was paid three dollars a week which was a great help to us.
After a year or two, my mother married again, as she could not
get along she thought without someone to provide for her. She
now had three daughters besides me, and had one son about eight
or nine years old. Her husband's name was William Huntington, a
very good man and kind to my mother and her children.

After a time, my sister Emily and myself went to live in
the family of the Prophet Joseph Smith. We lived there about
three years. While there, he taught to us the plan of
celestial marriage and asked us to enter into that order with
him. This was truly a great trial for me but I had the most
implicit confidence in him as a Prophet of the Lord and not but
believe his words and as a matter of course accept of the
privilege of being sealed to him as a wife for time and all
eternity. We were sealed in 1843 by H. C. K [Heber C.
Kimball] in the presence of witnesses. I continued to live in
his family for a length of time after this but did not reside
there when he was martyred which was the 27th of June, 1844.

I was then living with a family by the name of Coolidge. I
stayed with them for a year or more until I was married to a man
by the name of Amasa Lyman, one of the Twelve Apostles. I then
went to live with my mother for a while and after that lived
with him and his wife, Maria Louisa. Times were not then as
they are now in 1877, but a woman living in polygamy dare not
let it be known and nothing but a firm desire to keep the
commandments of the Lord could have induced a girl to marry in
that way. I thought my trials were very severe in the line and
I am often led to wonder how it was that a person of my
temperament could get along with it and not rebel, but I know it
was the Lord who kept me from opposing his plans although in my
heart I felt that I could not submit to them; but I did and I am
thankful to my Heavenly Father for the care he had over me in
those troublous times. After I married the second time, we
remained in Nauvoo for a few months living a part of the time in
the back part of my mother's house.

In February, 1846, we left Nauvoo and crossed the
Mississippi River with many of the Saints and started to go to
the Rocky Mountains where we hoped to be free to serve the Lord
as we thought best. While crossing the river the ice came down
in large pieces and threatened to sink our boat, but at this
time as well as many others, we were preserved by the power of
God. We went to Father John Tanner's and stayed several days as
the weather was very cold and we were not in a hurry to camp out
until we were obliged to. After a few days we left Father
Tanner and joined the camp of the Saints on Sugar Creek. The
weather was very cold, the snow deep, and we could not but be
very uncomfortable as we were very poorly fitted out for such a
journey at that time of the year. On the first of March, 1846,
the camp of Israel began to move. There were about 400 wagons.
After traveling about five miles, they camped for the night,
scraped away the snow and pitched their tents. Fortunately for
us, there was plenty of wood and the brethren made large fires
in front of the tents which kept us from freezing but we could
not possibly be made comfortable under such circumstances; but
did not complain as we were leaving the land of our enemies and
hoped for better times.

I think it was near the last of April [1846] that the camp
reached a place called by our brethren, Pisgah. Here they
concluded a part of the camp might stop and raise some crops of
grain and as all were not prepared to go on much farther. We
had thus far had a most unpleasant journey. After the snows
came rains, almost without cessation, making the ground very
muddy and some of the time the roads impassable so that we had
to remain in camp much more than we wished to, for we were
desirous to get to some place where we could make homes again.

At Pisgah I left my mother and sisters Emily and Lydia and
little brother Edward with my mother's husband, Father
Huntington, to stay until the next year or until there should be
a convenient opportunity for them to come. My sister Emily was
then President Brigham Young's wife and had one child, a boy
named Edward. My sister Caroline was one of the wives of my
husband and traveled on with us.

When we had traveled about 130 miles from Pisgah, there
came a requisition from the United States for 500 men to be
taken from our camps to go to Mexico to help the nation who had
driven us out from their midst. Our people responded to the
call and sent the 500, many of whom left their wives and
children in their wagons, not knowing where they would settle
and find a home, left them to the care of their brethren and
friends and many of them never met again. Some of the men died
during their absence; others returned to find that their wives
had sunk under the weight of care and disease and their children
scattered, but the Prophet of the Lord had said go and they
went, trusting in him.

One woman was living with us whose husband was in the
battalion [Mormon Battalion]. When it was time for them to
return, she was very much elated and rented a room and made all
preparations for housekeeping. But, Oh, what a disappointment
waited her; when the company came and she thought her happiness
nearly complete, they told her he was dead and had been for
months. Oh, the agony that she endured. It cannot be
described. My heart ached for, but I could not comfort her.

I will go back to the time that I left Nauvoo on the 9th of
February 1846, and write from my private journal. It will not
perhaps be very interesting to anyone but myself, but it shows
more particularly how we were situated and the hardships we
endured in accomplishing the journey. On February 9, 1846, I
bade adieu to my friends in Nauvoo and in company with my
husband, Amasa Lyman, Daniel P. Clark and wife, Henry Rollins,
and Dionitia W. Lyman (one of my husband's wives), started
westward, for some place where we might worship God according to
the dictates of our own consciences. We went about one mile to
the Mississippi River, waited about three hours, then succeeded
in procuring a boat, onto which we put our horses and wagons,
and as there was no prospect of Father Huntington crossing the
river that night, we took my mother, and sisters Caroline and
Lydia and brother Edward with us and crossed the river. When we
were about midway, we saw a boat at some distance from us,
sinking, with no one near to assist them, but fortunately for
them, they were near a sand bar so that they were not drowned,
and soon a boat reached them and took them safely to shore. Our
boat got into the ice which hindered us about an hour but did no
damage. We went to Brother Sidney Tanner's where a part of us
stayed all night and the rest stayed at Nathan Tanner's.